Salt-cake possesses certain other properties that make it somewhat troublesome to deal with as a glass-making material. Thus, on prolonged exposure, particularly to moist air, the powdered salt-cake absorbs moisture from the atmosphere and undergoes partial conversion into the crystalline form of “Glauber’s Salt,” a process which results in the formation of exceedingly hard masses. Ground salt-cake, therefore, cannot be stored for any length of time without incurring the necessity of regrinding, and this accretive action even comes into play when mixtures of glass-making materials, containing salt-cake as one ingredient, are stored. In practice, therefore, salt-cake can only be ground as it is wanted, and its physical properties make it difficult to grind it at all fine, while the dust arising from this process is peculiarly irritating, although not seriously injurious to health.
Potash is utilised in glass-making almost entirely in the form of carbonate, generally called “pearl-ash.” Originally derived from the ashes of wood and other land plants, this substance is now manufactured by processes similar to those described in the case of soda, the raw material being potassium chloride derived from natural deposits such as those at Stassfurth. The pearl-ash thus commercially obtainable is a fairly pure substance, but its use is complicated by the fact that it is strongly hygroscopic and rapidly absorbs water from the atmosphere. Where it is desired to produce potash glasses of constant composition, frequent analytical determinations of the moisture contents of the pearl-ash are necessary, and the composition of the glass mixture requires adjustment in accordance with the results of these determinations.
The alkalies are also introduced into glass in the form of nitrates (potassium nitrate, or saltpetre, and sodium nitrate, or nitre); but although these substances act as sources of alkali in the glass, they are employed essentially for the sake of their oxygen contents. Such oxidising agents are not, of course, added to glass mixtures containing sulphates and carbon, but are employed to purify the mixtures containing alkali carbonates, and more especially to oxidise the flint glasses. Since these substances are only introduced into glass in small quantities their extreme purity is not of such great importance to the glass-maker, and the ordinary “refined” qualities of both nitrates are found amply pure enough to answer the highest requirements.
